The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1887-05-17

upon the sand fairly writhing in hel
sorrow.
1t was too much for Rob. for he wa.
tender-hearted.
"Come, Frank. let's 60 for thai
boat"
Frank turned pale. Rob. you arr
crazy! Why should WEI Do you wan,
us to drownp"
81 don't want to drown, and think
we stand good chance of getting over
the bar, and this poor SOUL
eyes. / see her. but we can't helr
ner. Besides. what did you promise
father?'f
81 know. know. But father always
wants US to use our Judgment He
would not want us to refuse any one q
good service, even il there is danger in
doing it. There is something mysteri-
Gus in this woman's distress. / can
not refuse her."
80 Rob, don't be foolish! / won't
60 one step with you, that's aat. You
never can get over the bar, and / hope
you won't be fool enough to try"
al am going. Give us hand with
the boat"
Rousing the woman, he showed her
that they wanted her help, too. She
went eagerly to work. Frank could
not refuse his unwilling aid, and so
with the efforts Of all three the boat
moved over the sands, touched water,
fioated free.
The woman jumped in Immediately.
took her seat in the stern and sat inn
movable, regardless of Rob's efforts to
dissuade her. Seeing that it was of no
use he finally yielded, and pale but de-
termined. he. too, stepped in, after a
a last goodbye to Frank, and showed
off.
He had always fiattered himself that
he knew how to row, but in two min
utes this Breton woman showed him
that there were secrets of the art OF
which he knew nothing.
Her quick, vigorous stroke sent the
Star spinning on her course. She
seemed to know, by some instinct, just
how much force to expend on every
stroke, SO as never to pull Rob around,
and thus she never lost any way. Fast
and evenly fell her oars, until right
ahead of them Numbered the breakers.
The woman rose to her feet, and,
with a gesture that made Rob draw in
his oars, began to scull. Rob could
never tell how it happened; in a mo-
ment they were in the first line of
breakers, and before he could collect
his senses they were past it, sweeping
on to the next.
Another breathless moment, in which
the earth seemed to reel and dance,
the air to be filled with rushing waters,
and the Star had passed triumphantly
over the bar and floated free in deep
waters!
Pausing an instant to strain heI
eyes after her own boat, the woman
seized halyard and with Rob's quick
assistance hoisted a sail and flung out
the sheet. Away they fiew-the
woman with the tiller in one hand, the
sheet in the. other, seemed perfectly
able to manage the boat, and Rob sat
in silent admiration of the skill which
kept the boat so well before the wind,
yet always avoiding the break of any
wave.
Frank had seen all this from the
shore, and now he climbed up the cliff
the better to watch the Star as she rose
and fell on the waves, throwing of the
water from her bows in columns of
foam.
'She is an out-and-out racer. am
glad / am not in her." was what he
said; but deep in his heart were feel
ings which no one would have .envied;
he would, indeed, have been a misera-
BILE boy as he sat watching the lessening
sail, had it not been that in admiration
for Rob's pluck all thought of himself
was drowned.
WHO would have thought it of Robe
Why, the fellows treat him as il he
were part grill j don't understand it
TO 60 willingly over that frightful bar
when only this morning he was afraid
Of it! Rob is really timid, and yet he
will do very dangerous thing il any
good can come out of it; but do risky
things just for fun and because / get
going and don't know they are risky
till they are done, and half the time
harm comes of them to some one, if not
70 myself"
Pulling over these differences in
people, he tired his eyes in the strain |
Of watching the swift little Star, and
the dancing speck towards which she |
was being steered.
Time went on and on, still the dis |
,ance between them hardly seemed to
essen; it was not till the hull of the |
Star was lost to his sight that Frank |!
how far out the woman's boat |